Emotions
by Akimoto True Autumn
Summary: just something to get out of my mind.


**Avarice**

Jiraiya doesn't understand Orochimaru. Even when it seems like he's got it all- Sarutobi-sensei's pride, genius skill, Tsunade not kicking his arse every five minutes- even then it's never enough.

He's the most ambitious person Jiraiya has ever known, and it's obvious how much it rankles when Sarutobi passes him over to be the next Hokage. He's obsessed with new jutsu, obsessed with immortality, obsessed with power and being the best; he always wants more.

Jiraiya doesn't understand the fascination with any of those things. The point of life is to live it and have fun, but Orochimaru treats everything like a race that he has to win. He always does win, too, which really annoys Jiraiya, especially since Orochimaru has a habit of rubbing it in.

In fact, most things about Orochimaru annoy Jiraiya, which would be why Jiraiya is forever starting fights and Orochimaru is always ending them.

Even if the serpent is annoying, though, it's not that easy to believe that maybe his greed could turn him evil. He's never been a _nice_ ninja, but…

"We've been companions since we were children, haven't we?"

He's still a comrade, and Jiraiya can't cut his bonds as easily as Orochimaru can.

"You'll always be a simple person, Jiraiya."

The thing that annoys Jiraiya most about Orochimaru isn't his greed.

It's the way he can't stop wanting to forgive him for it.

* * *

**Lust**

There's one thing, more than anything else, that Naruto doesn't understand about Kakashi: why does he read the Icha Icha books?

They're pervert books; it didn't take much to figure _that_ out, especially not once Naruto had learned that the pervert hermit is the one writing them. It's not like Naruto doesn't know that some guys like that kind of thing- he doesn't understand it, no, but his sexy no jutsu has worked on enough ninja for him to have a pretty good grasp on the idea that girls and lust can be a weakness.

The thing is, it's not the girls or the lust that are Kakashi's weakness. It's the books themselves. Sexy no jutsu doesn't work on him- but if you threaten to spoil the ending of an Icha Icha for him? Well, it worked the first time. Naruto hasn't tried it again yet.

It's a paradox. Kakashi reads pervert books, but he doesn't do perverted things, like chase after girls and spy on them bathing.

The only possible explanation Naruto can come up with is that… maybe he reads them for their plots?

Which is a little disturbing, really, because Naruto has spent enough time with Jiraiya to know what goes _into_ those plots. He'd thought that only a woman could like that kind of mushy trash.

All in all, holding onto his respect for his former teacher had been a lot easier when Naruto had thought he was a pervert.

* * *

**Envy**

Hinata thinks sometimes that maybe she and Neji were born the wrong way around. She's too shy to be the leader of the Hyuuga clan; too ineffectual, not strong enough, and Neji is just the right kind of genius. She can't blame him for hating her, because he has every right to be jealous.

To be truthful, Hinata wishes she could change the tradition somehow. She doesn't even want to be the clan head, not really, so it only seems fair to let someone better qualified do the job, someone who actually wants to. Someone like Neji.

It would be for the good of the clan, there's no question of that. Hinata isn't thinking of the clan, though, not really; she's thinking of Neji, and she's thinking of herself.

She doesn't want to give him a reason to be jealous.

It's not because she wants him to stop persecuting her; he hasn't been, recently, which she doesn't quite understand but thinks maybe it's because he's changed, somehow. He's less bitter, less jealous.

Still, that's not why. The reason is that she doesn't want Neji to resent her. She doesn't want a barrier between them. She wants him to be happy, and she wants him to like her, because despite everything she wants to be friends with him.

He's always been jealous, he has the right to be jealous, maybe he even _should_ be jealous. Jealousy is his birthright, but Hinata doesn't want that for him any more than he wants it for himself, and it seems like he's finally managed to transcend that.

He tells her, one day, that he thinks she'll make a good clan head. She doesn't know why he said that, because she doesn't agree, but she is grateful to him, relieved that he doesn't hate her now.

If she gets the chance, Hinata will find a way to let Neji be clan head, and it will have nothing to do with jealousy.

* * *

**Sloth**

Temari doesn't get Shikamaru. How can someone that smart be so lazy? He would have beaten her in that Chuunin exam if he hadn't forfeited. He knows that, she knows that, everyone who saw the fight knows that. It's completely foreign to her that he could be that lacking in competitiveness, to just give up like that when the victory was in the palm of his hand. Then again, he's got amazing foresight; maybe he realised he'd need to save his strength for later.

Even so, that doesn't change the fact that he's about the laziest ninja she knows.

About the laziest, and almost the smartest. It's practically inhuman, the way he always reads everything ten or more steps ahead and then reacts, as though he has the precognitive abilities of a prophet and the brains of a genius to match.

Well, Shikamaru has definitely got the brains of a genius, as much as she likes to pay him out. She's holding out judgement on the precognition for now, but it's disturbing the way she wouldn't even be surprised if he did have that kind of skill.

The point is, Temari never wants to play chess with him, and she'd prefer not to go up against him in a fight again either.

They probably won't have to, though, because the strange thing is, despite how much she insults him and despite his attitude towards women, they've become… well. As much as she hesitates to use the word "friends", that's what they are. She guesses, anyway. She doesn't mean the insults most of the time, after all, and she's starting to get the idea that maybe when he says she's bossier than his mum it's a bizarre kind of backward compliment.

His laziness still gets to her, though.

* * *

**Gluttony**

A lot of people used to underestimate Chouji, just because he likes to eat a lot and he's almost as lazy as his best friend. It bothers Shikamaru in a way that is unusual for him; it's rare for him to decide that something is worth the effort of being bothered about.

People used to underestimate both of them, really, but Shikamaru didn't care when it was him they were underestimating. He knows he's lazy; he also knows he's smarter than all his former classmates. If they sometimes forget that, so what? You've got an advantage if people underestimate you. He'd rather sleep than train, and Chouji would rather eat. It's none of their business, but that never stopped anyone from having their say.

He didn't care when it was him because it doesn't affect him, but Chouji has never had the same self-assurance. When people put Chouji down, he believes them, and that really irritates Shikamaru. What do they know? The fact that Chouji didn't usually want to fight didn't mean he didn't have the capacity to fight, but when his own sensei was telling him he needed to train more and his was teammate telling him to lose weight, it's no wonder he had no self-esteem.

Still, he thinks maybe they all respect Chouji a little more after the incident with the sound nins. Seeing him like that, so thin and pale after his victory… Shikamaru thinks that now they understand that Chouji isn't weak. That it's not a bad thing that he eats so much, because food gives him strength.

It's a compromise, of sorts: Chouji and Shikamaru have to train their hardest, because no one can afford to slack off these days, but nobody thinks Chouji is weak anymore, and nobody tells him to stop eating.

Chouji eats all he likes, and that's the way it should be.

* * *

**Wrath**

Sasuke has been the cold type for so many years that everyone has forgotten what he was like as a young child. Sakura had always assumed that was just how he was, an untouchable ice prince. She didn't learn the full story until it was already too late, and now she often wonders: what is really going through his head?

His cool detached attitude was one of the charms that drew the girls to him like moths to a flame, just like his looks and his talent, but she suspects that it was just a mask. One that became a part of him, integral to his personality, but still a mask, intended to push everyone else away.

It must be lonely.

She had never thought that he would follow Orochimaru. Well, maybe she had; maybe she had, at the back of her mind, beneath all the hope and the false reassurances that he was too much in control to lose himself in his vengeance like that. She had forgotten: revenge is a dish best served cold.

Sakura had thought, before he left, that secretly Sasuke hated all of them, that that was why he was so cold, that was why he left. These days, she has learned that she was wrong. The real reason was that he didn't want anyone to get too close, and it hadn't worked. Sasuke cares about all his comrades, despite his cool attitude. That had been confirmed when Naruto had told her about what Sasuke had said during their fight: Naruto is his closest friend.

The only surprise was that Sasuke had actually said it. She'd known it, somehow, although she's not quite sure how. She'd told Naruto he was the only one who could persuade Sasuke to come back; it's still true.

Even though he uses the Uchiha fire jutsu, Sasuke is made of self-created ice. His revenge is like bitter cold winter, consuming him until he can't live for anything else. He needs to be saved from himself, from his own vengeance, and as much as Sakura wants to be the one to do it, the only person with the right kind of heat is Naruto.

All she can do is hope that Naruto will be able to thaw Sasuke before the need for revenge freezes him entirely.

* * *

**Pride**

When Naruto was younger, it sometimes seemed impossible for anyone living in Konoha village to avoid his over-inflated ego. I'll be Hokage! I'm the best! And then he'd always make a fool of himself whenever he tried to impress anyone. It was amusing at times, and indescribably annoying at others. Easy enough to pass Naruto off as an idiot with an opinion of himself far above where it should be, but...

Those who know him well have learned, one way or another, that a lot of insecurity festers underneath that boastful surface.

Naruto clings to his pride because at one stage, it was the only thing he had. Even when people laughed, he had to believe that he could improve, that he could make them see him somehow, because otherwise it was the same as not existing at all.

These days, his pride isn't the only thing that's his. He has friends, he has respect, and in a way, through Iruka-sensei, he almost has family. People believe in him. People see him, even people like Gaara, the Sand's Kazekage, who once saw nobody.

It's not enough, and neither is his pride.

Naruto's dream is built on his need to be recognised; to be Hokage would be to have all of Konoha acknowledge him for himself, someone greater than the monster sealed inside him. Even though he's nowhere near becoming the next Hokage, he's near achieving that goal in some ways; the ninja of his generation have a respect for him that they didn't have before. Other ninja have occasionally heard of him, are interested in him, like him. As Kakashi had said once, though, what he wants isn't really everyone's recognition. It's Sasuke's recognition.

He's even got that, now; to Sasuke, he's worth fighting. To Sasuke, Naruto is… Naruto is his closest friend. He knows that.

And even that's not enough.

Naruto wants recognition. He wants friendship, respect, others to be proud of him like he tries to be proud of himself. But more than that, more than any of that, what he wants is to get Sasuke back. Pride isn't everything.

"If that's what it means to be wise… I'd rather be a fool."

_I'll get Sasuke back._

Naruto has his pride, but Sasuke is more important, and he'll do what it takes to save him, no matter what.


End file.
